MiCare Champion Cast

Patients and families need reliable and timely information about the quality of care at their local hospital, so they can make better healthcare decisions. In this episode, we talk to Tina Freese Decker, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Spectrum Health; MHA CEO Brian Peters; and Sam Watson, Senior Vice President, Patient Safety & Quality, MHA Keystone Center, about why transparency is important and what Michigan hospitals are doing to be more transparent.

Learn more at http://VerifyMICare.org.

In the seventh episode of our series, we get the patient and caregiver perspective on sepsis, the body’s life-threatening response to infection. Sepsis kills hundreds of thousands of Americans every year, and it’s something Michigan hospitals are working hard to combat.

In this episode, we talk to Rebecca Thomas of Harrison Township; Corine Pope, Patient Safety & Quality Coordinator, MHA Keystone Center; and Pat Posa, Quality Excellence Leader, St. Joseph Mercy Health System.

Resources:

https://www.sepsis.org/resources/infographics/

http://mhakeystonecenter.org

In the sixth episode of our series, we discuss staffing ratios and efforts to legislate them from Lansing. Chris Mitchell, senior vice president of advocacy at the MHA, shares an update on the current proposals in Lansing, and Joyce Young, regional chief nursing officer for Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, shares how individual hospitals handle staffing decisions.

In the fifth episode of our series, we learn about advocacy from Kate Steele, an auto accident survivor and advocate; Stephanie Helton, who leads communications & grassroots advocacy at Trinity Health; and Rep. Daniela Garcia (R-Holland). They share their experiences and advice for advocates.

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has had a tremendous positive impact on people in Michigan. Nearly 1 million Michiganders now have healthcare coverage thanks to the ACA, which could potentially be lost if efforts to repeal and replace the law are successful.

In the fourth episode of our series, we talk to Dizzy Warren, executive director of Enroll Michigan, and Ruthanne Sudderth, vice president of public affairs at the MHA, about the impacts of the ACA in Michigan. MiCare Champions can get involved by spreading the word about this year’s open enrollment period and by contacting their lawmakers to protect the expansion in access to care we’ve seen under this law.

Resources:

http://enrollmichigan.org/

https://micarematters.org/take-action/

https://protectmicare.com/

In the third episode of our series, we learn about health equity from Ewa Panetta, manager of Patient Safety & Quality at the MHA Keystone Center, and Jacqueline Thomas-Hall, Beaumont Health’s system director of Diversity and Inclusion. Learn what hospitals are doing and how you can get involved at micarematters.org/take-action.

We covered Michigan’s auto no-fault insurance system in the first episode of our series, and there have been several developments since then. We spoke again to Laura Appel, the MHA’s senior vice president and chief innovation officer, to talk about the latest proposal that would drastically change Michigan’s auto no-fault law, HB 5013. To learn more and take action, visit https://micarematters.org/take-action.

In the second episode of our series, we talk to Rami Khoury, MD, FACEP, Medical Director of Emergency Medicine at Henry Ford Allegiance Health, and Paige Fults, Director of Advocacy at the MHA, about the impact of the opioid crisis in Michigan and what we can do to help.

In the first episode of our series, Laura Appel, the MHA’s senior vice president and chief innovation officer, explains the history of Michigan’s auto no-fault insurance law and what is being considered to reform the system.